We’ve been so busy we’re just now catching up on our own news, some of which is no longer very new. Among the most important skipped stories was the arrival of Jennifer Mack as the firm’s newest research assistant. Jennifer started back in August, bringing four years of experience in higher education administration and outstanding data skills to our Chicago-based team.

In the months since she arrived, Jennifer has focused on the higher education side of our practice, managing alumni and student research studies for Stanford University, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has also been instrumental on several arts & culture projects, including research for the Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Contemporary Arts Chicago, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“Jennifer was immediately a delight and an asset,” says Chloe Chittick Patton, Slover Linett’s vice president of research services. “She looks at survey data with a uniquely sharp eye, and discovers the things that matter most for our clients.”

Before joining Slover Linett, Jennifer worked in faculty support and financial management at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, where she also took courses in economics and public policy. The full story is in her bio in our Team section.

Jennifer attended Smith College, where she studied mathematics and comparative literature (and won a National Science Foundation scholarship as well as the college’s Pokora Prize in mathematics). She received a fellowship to study in the University of Chicago’s Masters of Arts Program in the Humanities, where she focused on the history of psychology and the philosophy of history.

Please help us welcome Jennifer belatedly but wholeheartedly to the team. She can be reached at (312) 348-9200, ext. 59, or by email.

Last month, Coca-Cola aired its now-famous Super Bowl ad depicting people from various racial, ethnic, and cultural groups singing “America the Beautiful” together in different languages. Among the instant outpouring of polarized reactions to this ad rang much praise for its depiction of a multicultural America. Yet the ad provoked a slew of negative responses as well. Many of the ad’s detractors questioned whether this multicultural America could ever feel as cohesive as an America whose citizens speak a common language, and therefore have taken great strides toward assimilating into a common culture.